Popular blog apologizes, says goodbye
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:52:00 07/05/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- After going underground for a while, a popular gossip blog has decided to bid the blogosphere goodbye.
"The time has come and we write this in peace," Chikatime wrote in its farewell message to readers on July 4.
For the past few days, Chikatime has gone underground, only allowing people it invited to have access to its juicy gossip about celebrities and other Filipino personalities.
Chikatime became known for breaking the Brian Gorrell-DJ Montano story, among other stories.
"Us chikatime ghels (plus ghey) would like to thank lahat ng nagbasa ng [all who read our] blog namin for the past year. Sana kahit papaano na-entertain namin kayo [We hope we entertained you] even at the expense of Pinoy personalities," the people behind the blog wrote.
"Mali pala [It was wrong] to write negatively about public figures like artistas, media people, socialites, etc." the blog said.
The blog apologized to people it offended.
An earlier story revealed a series of blog entries from Jenni Epperson in popular social networking site Multiply offers some clues as to why Chikatime might have gone underground.
Epperson wrote that a reader of her blog has given her clues about the people behind Chikatime.
A quick check on the domain name "Chikatime" showed that it was registered under GoDaddy Inc., a web hosting service based in the United States. It didn't indicate the real owners of the blog.
In her recent blog posting, Epperson wrote, "I had known this vital information about chikatime for some time now. It was given to me -- and I say 'given' because it was really a gift from a reader/ believer ('ridge') that made it clear that I had the freedom to do whatever I chose with it. I was faced with a situation of propriety and decency: should I keep it to myself? Or should I publish Chikatime's identities and photos at the speed of a click, but at the cost of destroying them and becoming the very person I was so against? It was like choosing between the red pill and the blue pill -- so I chose the pink pill! It's cuter and more ghey anyway."
Epperson stressed that her decision not to reveal identities of the people behind Chikatime is a "better, greater way to go about our choices, so I chose to go with my heart and to have faith in the power of peace, love (and shopping)."
"I am happy that Chikatime issued their apology. There is hope in the world yet I also hope that this will also be a 'new chapter' where people will find more entertainment in positive things, and not dirt, slander or lies about other people who have no way of defending themselves. That is so ten seasons, ten galaxies ago," she said.
"And if this breed of hate gossip just reincarnates in another place, then at least we now know that there is a way to fight it, and it is not with more hate, or bad vibes, or revenge, it is to counteract it with faith, good vibes, and positivity," she said.
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